Five people charged after protesters lay in road chained to barrels at fracking site

Poppy Kennedy

Five people have been charged by police after protesters chained themselves to barrels outside a fracking site in North Yorkshire.

Police were called to the village of Kirby Misperton yesterday (Monday), after campaigners lay in the road and locked themselves to concrete barrels, in an anti-fracking protest.

Officers revealed yesterday that they made made six arrests during the protest at the entrance to the hydraulic fracturing site, off Habton Road, taking the total number of people held over protests this month at the site to 18

A 56-year-old woman has now been charged with obstructing a police constable following arrests made yesterday.

Four women, aged 35, 36, 54 and 62, have also been charged with wilfully obstructing a highway, and besetting a place to compel the abstention of a lawful act, North Yorkshire Police confirmed.

The five people who have been charged will appear at York Magistrates Court next month.

A 61-year-old man who was arrested yesterday has now been released without charge.

A total of 18 people have been arrested at the site so far this month.

Two were released with no further action, two accepted cautions, and 14 have been charged.

Fracking is the controversial method of drilling for shale gas and oil.

The protests were staged in a bid to stop company Third Energy’s lorries and specialist equipment entering the fracking site in the village, ahead of test-drilling which is due to start later this year.